Making an emergency whole house generator out of 3rd Gen Tacoma?

From the recent tornadoes that hit Dallas recently I got interested in powering my whole home in an emergency situation if the power goes out for hours, and perhaps days. Was wondering how to cheaply and effectively do this. Solar, electric battery generator, regular gasoline generator? I have a small house, two bedrooms only. I know almost nothing about generators, but heard that a truck can be turned into a generator. Anybody know how to do this? My truck is 4 cylinder. Perhaps make a generator out of a truck, and if an emergency happens, plug it into the whole house to power it, no worries about storing fuel because the fuel is already in the truck. And if the fuel runs out just drive to a gas station and quickly fill up, or so it the theory. Could also be used as a power source in various outdoor situations? Will this work? What do I have to do to my house to make it work? And what do I have to do to my truck? Any better alternatives?

 

A generator.




Hate to be a smartass but uh, yeah um, that idea is a bit out there haha. Youd be cool with potentialy racking up hundreds of idle hours?

 

I've installed a few of these. They're pretty sweet. Power goes out, 10 seconds later it's back on. They self test weekly. Well worth the $$, IMO.

 

Looks interesting, but if I understand it costs thousands of dollars. I'm on a budget. Looking for someting in the hundreds.

 

Your idea is not feasible on the cheap. You would be spending less money to just buy a dedicated generator.

Unless you had an old generator without a motor to somehow link to a drive wheel with the truck jacked up, I see no way to power the house with your truck.

It's good to think outside the box, but sometimes it's not worth it.

 

Idle hours are bad? Sorry, not informed. Might be just a few hours or a few days of idle hours, so less than 100 hours. Just for very unusual and short lived event. I saw some stuff about turning a car into a generator, still doing research. Will keep this thread updated if I do anything like that.

 

With a budget of a few hundred dollars you won't find a good whole house generator. Add in automatic startup or buss transfer gear and the cost goes up even more. And fabricating something to run off the power-train would be cost andtechnically prohibitive as well (gens need to run at a constant RPM to maintain a 60hz output, how much throttle required is determined by the load you intend to put on it which is never constant.) At your price point you're best option is to get a small generator and power only essential equipment (fridge, security system, water heater if electric) Honda makes a fine product that will fit the bill.

 

I think powering the whole house is not likely, but powering the lights, which are mostly LED, the fridge, the TV, the internet, the security cameras, maybe a fan or space heater? Just for emergencies. Still looking into it. This is what I found so far, one is actually a product that attaches to the vehicle:

https://cargenerator.com/

And found some stuff on Youtube about using a protable generator to power some parts of your house.

 

Yes. That is what I found as well. However, I'm still looking into whether it migh be better to use the car as that portable generator.

 

What happens to your fridge when you need to go out and grab groceries? Seems to me like slaving the truck to the house would be annoying at best.

 

1000 watts isn't very much electricit. Doesn't your truck already have a 400 watt inverter?

 

Buy a generator. It’s a whole lot easier, cheaper and more versatile.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-to-go-out-again-and-non-ethanol-fuel.635224/

 

A 5,000 watt generator is around $500. That will run all the things you listed for you AND for your next door neighbor. (I always offer to power the neighbors stuff. It makes them more accepting of the noise).
I bought mine 20 years ago when we lived on the coast in North Carolina and had hurricanes knocking out the power every year. Since we moved to DFW I run mine more now just to keep it running than to power the house.
I’ve been through 3 vehicles since I bought the generator but the genny is still around.

 

Easy peezy.

Disconnect your drive shaft and hook it up to a tractor PTO generator.

https://m.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_119923_119923

24kw baby. Plug your whole street in!

 

It’s funny how everyone says this option is way too expensive yet no one seems to actually know how to do it.

My fondest memories as a kid were watching my dad make cool stuff out of shit other ppl were throwing away. We made an AC and a generator from spare parts he found in old appliances. Im curious to know how to do it even if it isn’t the cheapest option. Anyone? Any Macgyvers out there that have rigged something up cheap?

 

Using a 270hp engine to power a 1000w inverter definitely wins the Rube Goldberg award.

 

It’s not outputting 270hp at idle.

 

Knock yourself out.

 

If we're turning the dial to macgyver, then I'm voting for a set of rollers for the back wheels hooked up to a pulley driving half a dozen used alternators, charging a bank of used car batteries, which are in turn running a really big inverter (or two). It avoids the power frequency problem entirely, and if you need more power, you can throw a brick on the gas pedal.


And probably horribly inefficient.